The present invention relates to pallets of the type which support loads thereon and which are adapted to be lifted and transported from one place to another by fork lift trucks.
Pallets have been made for many years completely of wood, and such pallets are ordinarily reused a number of times. Such pallets are disadvantageous in that they are expensive and heavy. Furthermore, personnel handling wooden pallets often receive splinters. Additionally, such wooden pallets are fabricated at plants where special tooling is available, and it is expensive to ship such heavy pallets to the site where they are to be used.
In an effort to overcome the disadvantages of such wooden pallets, lightweight pallets have been developed using various materials. Corrugated paperboard has been employed in such lightweight pallets, but when such materials are used, the pallets have been thrown away after initial use and are not reused. Such pallets are damaged in use because they are not sufficiently strong and rigid in construction to withstand the forces applied thereto without being damaged. Even though such expendable pallets are much cheaper than wooden pallets, the fact that they cannot be reused is an undesirable feature.
Prior art pallets have employed constructions wherein voids or tunnels are provided therein for receiving the forks of a fork lift truck. These voids are usually quite a bit wider than the forks of a lift truck so as to receive the forks without requiring the truck operator to very accurately align the truck forks with such voids. The presence of such voids substantially reduces the overall strength of the pallet.